Later this year, I will be releasing We Are All Dinos at the Dino Show, a LARP-lite game about pretending to be a dinosaur.
Last weekend, I ran the first public playtest for the game. Before I tell you how it went (good) and what I learned (a bit), you need to understand a little about the game.
We are all dinos at the dino show
Last year there was a dino show. In the initial draft, it went off without a hitch. Now, it’s time for the second annual dino show, and paleontologists have recognized the great opportunity to study these majestic beasts.
There’s only one problem: only dinos are allowed to compete.
What’s a dino show?
A dino show is like a dog show. Dinosaurs compete in 5 different events, each one graded by a judge. These events range from “Show off how you attract a mate” to “Let us hear you roar!”
After each event, judges (each player plays two characters, one dino, one judge) rate their first, second, and third place entries, as well as vote on any imposters they may feel have snuck in.
And this is… a game?
At the start of the show, each contestant secretly chooses a dinosaur to be. Then they draw a card out of a hat to determine if they are a real dinosaur, or a scientist imposter.
Both teams have the same goal: to have first, second, and third place be filled with Dinosaurs. Imposters also want to last long enough in the competition to gather good intel, ideally ending around 4th or 5th place without getting eliminated.
Inspiration, wherever you can find it
Why does this game exist?
Simple. Last year, I ran a one shot of Escape From Dino Island. During my pitch of the game, one of my players (thanks, Mari!) remarked, “No fair, you just want to make dino noises!” I couldn’t argue! She took it a step further, expressing that if we had too many players, she would volunteer to voice all of the dinos on the island.
Why isn’t that the game? I wondered.
And here we are.
Spare some change?
What did I learn, what needs to change?
First, the playtest went pretty well. We all had fun, the rules were well understood, and the game held together.
But, there are three things I’m going to change as a direct result.
- Suddenly MATH?
Throughout the game, judges hand out first, second, and third place tokens. At the end of the game, these are assigned point values, and we add them up.
Some people had more than 15 tokens. “You didn’t say there’d be MATH!” One player remarked. That’s true, I hadn’t. Now, I’m going to give out point tokens directly, so the math can be a little more cumulative, instead of a big surprise at the end. - Order matters.
I got last place in this game. It’s possible I am just bad at pretending to be a dinosaur (I wasn’t an imposter), but I refuse to believe that. My parents are extremely proud of me. Instead, I believe the game is broken.
Specifically, I always went first. That means that I was both the benchmark everyone else compared against, and the least fresh when it came time to vote. In the revised version, whoever is deemed to be winning will go first, allowing others to remain in recent memory. - The lore. It’s gotta change.
One soft suggestion I received was to switch up the in-universe lore. There’s a chance that there are NO imposters here, and that the title is correct. It’s also technically possible (but very unlikely) for there to be no dinosaurs! One player suggested that I tweak the lore just a little: instead of last year’s show being clean, a single paleontologist snuck in, so suspicions are raised, and everyone is looking for an imposter. This way there’s some tension baked into the premise from the start.
What’s next?
These are the three actionable pieces of feedback from today’s session. I need to stir them up, polish up the document, and schedule the next playtest!
Note: I may take other suggestions as well. Several players suggested broadening out “the museum”, the part of the game where dinos are described in light detail, to help the outer space / ancient egypt / medieval Europe kids hold squarely against the dino kids.